Leseprobe

447 created by Jacob Heise in Königsberg in 1659, was presented to Johann Georg II of Saxony by Elector FriedrichWilhelm of Brandenburg in 1662 (fig. 2).9 As a work of art, this orna- mental vessel was a diplomatic gift of the first order. The same applies to numerous objects dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the treasure chambers of Euro- pean rulers. They changed hands as expressions of dynastic ties and in connection with princely alliance policies, but they were not directly associated with negotiations over war and peace.10 The same can be said of a form of reciprocal gift-giv- ing which was popular in southern Germany, and especially in Switzerland, starting in the late Middle Ages, but which then also spread to northern Germany: namely, gifts of win- dows or glass panels. This is an interesting phenomenon in the context under discussion here because “as a political prac- tice based on representations” it was employed as a substi- tute—especially in this period of extreme confessional tension. Gifts made of fragile materials successfully replaced “war, paying visits, liturgy and the oath of confederacy— forms that were dependent on physical presence and were filled with symbolism, and through which relationships [in this case] between the Confederates were refreshed”.11 The multidimensional significance, indeed symbolic charge, of gift-giving reached a peak during the Thirty Years’ War, as the following examples illustrate. FIG. 3 Ottoman, Saddle with girth, c. 1600, wood, leather, silk velvet, sheet silver, gilt, turquoises, nephrite plaques, rubies, h. 43 cm, w. 47 cm, d. 31 cm, given by Emperor Matthias as a gift to Johann Georg I of Saxony in 1617, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Rüstkammer, inv. no. L 0002 b